Today we’re pleased to present a guest interview with Milk Without Honey creator Hanna Harms, conducted by her publisher, Street Noise Books publisher Liz Frances. If you’re not familiar with the graphic novel, it offers an up-close-and-personal look at the life of bees — their hives, their colonies and their interactions with the ecosystem. It explores the impact that our actions as humans are having on them and, as a result, on agriculture and the worldwide food supply. The graphic novel is available now.
by Liz Frances
Of all the many creatures on the planet, why have you chosen to write about bees?
Milk Without Honey started as my thesis in 2019. The year before, I read an article about how closely the cultural history of humanity is interwoven with the history of bees. While news about the insect extinction were becoming more and more frequent worldwide, I couldn’t get this paradox between the almost divine elevation of bees and the ruthless destruction of their habitat by humans out of my mind.
I’d love to learn more about your creative process. How specifically is the art for this book made? And I see there is a balance in the book between sharp geometric grids and soft gentle imagery. Why have you chosen this juxtaposition to talk about the natural world?
While researching, I began to collect ideas for images and feelings that felt important. In order to visually break down the complex topic, I primarily used associations, metaphors and a limited color palette. Bright colors and contrasts that reflect the content—fragility and force, a power imbalance between humanity and nature. I chose to work mainly analog, because creative decisions come easier to me this way. Pencil for fine lines and dark areas. Yellow-green gouache areas for bees, plants and insecticides. And salmon-colored wax pastels for a little hope.
Your book is full of facts but reads like poetry. How do you hope the reader will experience the pace of the language in combination with the artwork?
It was important to me to depict this connection between poetry and science without resorting to clichés. I wanted to create a space for emotions and reflection while providing information about the background for necessary change. The pictures show what the text cannot say and vice versa. The focus is on the insects, the humans are only visible through their actions and their effects. This approach helped me a lot in developing the images and text.
This book talks about many different factors that are contributing to bees dying off all around the world. Is there one that you think we should worry about the most? And what is the most urgent thing we can do to save the bees right now?
The effects of human actions are by far the biggest factor, not only in the global decline of bee populations, but with insects overall—anthropogenic climate change being one of those effects. Scientific studies around the world have come to the same conclusion, namely that insecticides are primarily responsible for a drastic decline in biodiversity. The agrochemical industry which uses these insecticides acts in its own interest to exert pressure on politics and science. It funds studies on other factors, and thereby forces scientific literature to look in away from the damage that they are doing. An important step to save the insect populations would be to prosecute those responsible for ecocide.
Do you think that on balance the business of honey production actually helps or hurts the global bee population?
Industrial agriculture—and that includes industrial beekeeping—exposes honey bees to the multiple interacting stressors that lead to a decline in their global population. Whether for honey production or for pollination, industrial beekeeping is factory farming, with the same destructive consequences. This destructive system not only creates devastating conditions for honey bees, but for all pollinating insects.
In your book, you admit there may not be a solution, and that there may be no way to go back. Would you say you are hopeful about the future? And how can we be?
The scary message is that insect deaths are not a dystopian scenario of the future, but are already happening. It was important for me to show that a bleak future is not as far away as it seems. That being said, not acting just isn’t an option. Luckily the problem seems to be gaining attention in society and politics. There are a lot of incredible scientists and environmentalists who have dedicated themselves to researching and protecting the nature of this planet. They are the reason I harbor some hope despite everything, and I would encourage everyone to listen to what they have to say.
Hanna Harms is an illustrator and comic author. She graduated from the Münster School of Design in Germany. She is currently studying for an MA in illustration at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. Hanna is co-editor and author of the comic zine Sander. The German edition of this debut graphic novel Milch ohne Honig, won the Ginco Award in 2020 in the Best Nonfiction Comic category.